Realme Goes Back to Being Oppo Sub-brand As China's BBK Electronics Eyes Cost-Cutting

Chinese smartphone brand Realme said Wednesday that it is being integrated back into Oppo as a sub-brand, framing the change as a way to pool resources and reduce costs. The move effectively pulls two parallel organisations, both operating under the same corporate umbrella, closer together at a time when smartphone makers are under pressure to defend margins while keeping launch cycles aggressive.

Realme’s footprint makes the decision hard to ignore. The brand sells phones across India, Southeast Asia and Europe, and has historically competed on sharp pricing and fast refreshes in the budget and mid-range segments. Oppo, meanwhile, runs in overlapping price bands in many of the same markets, which has often meant duplicated spend across R&D, marketing and supply-chain operations, precisely the overlaps this integration is designed to address.

Both brands are owned by BBK Electronics, the Chinese consumer hardware group that also owns Vivo and its sub-brand iQOO, giving the parent company multiple smartphone labels fighting for share in the same global channels. Realme’s reintegration suggests BBK is now prioritising efficiency over internal brand separation, likely centralising decisions on platforms, components and product planning.

For consumers, the near-term impact may be subtle, but new phones will still launch under the Realme name, and the strategic shift could show up in more shared hardware platforms, more consistent software direction, and fewer “near-duplicate” models across Oppo and Realme portfolios. For India in particular, where both companies have relied on wide offline retail networks and aggressive online pushes, a tighter structure could also influence distribution, service operations, and launch cadence over 2026.

Read more: CES 2026: All the Cool Tech Showcased on Day 2